LORD MicroStrain^® complete terms and conditions of sale may be found at: http://files.microstrain.com/terms-conditions-sale.pdf

To enable customers to try our standard products risk free, LORD MicroStrain^® offers a 30 day return on the purchase of a starter kit. In order to take advantage of this offer, a purchase order or payment for the starter kit is required when the order is placed. 30 day trial details may be found at: http://www.microstrain.com/support/warranty

LORD MicroStrain^® insures all products shipments to their full value unless the customer specifically states a different method.

Microsoft Excel displays the timestamp contained in the wireless node data files incorrectly.  If you were to open the CSV file with Microsoft Notepad, you will see that the timestamp is shown properly.  In order to get Excel to show the human readable time, follow the below procedure:

• Highlight all of column A (column with the timestamp)
• Right click on highlighted region and select Format cells...
• Select the Number Tab in the window that open and choose Custom from the Category box
• Scroll to the bottom of the list in the Type box, find this entry: m/d/yyyy h:mm and click it
• Add to the entry an :ss.000 so it now looks like this: m/d/yyyy h:mm:ss.000
• Click OK

The timestamp willshould now be correct.

The wireless node's effective download rate is ~9.2 kBps, or 73.6 kbps.  In perfect wireless conditions, a node's full 2MB memory can be downloaded in approximately 3.7 minutes.  While 250 kbps is the radio transmission rate, there are others variables that factor into the effective download rate including memory read time, packet overhead, radio acknowledgments, and base station to PC communication.   

The internal power switch allows the wireless node to use external power from batteries or other sources. Here is a link to a detailed technical note: http://files.microstrain.com/8401-0004-Using-External-Power-With-Wireless-Sensor-Nodes.pdf

All software provided by MicroStrain saves data files in CSV (comma separated value) format.  The CSV file is readily importable into any third party analysis program.

The wireless nodes all have 2 Mbytes of datalogging memory.  This 2 Mbytes is organized into 8,191 ‘pages’ of memory, each page holds 132 data points.  The maximum number of data points that can be held in memory can be calculated as follows: 8,191 pages x 132 data points/page = 1,081,212 total data points.

Now the question arises, ‘how long can a node datalog before its memory is full?’. The answer is that it varies depending on how many channels are being sampled and what sampling rate has been set. Here are two examples:

Let’s set a V-Link-LXRS so that channel 1 is active with a datalogging sampling rate of 2048 samples per second and we launch continuous datalogging.  Our calculation would be:

• 1 channel x 2,048 samples per second = 2,048 data points per second
• 1,081,212 data points / 2,048 data points per second = 527 seconds
• 527 seconds / 60 seconds per minute = ~9 minutes to fill the memory

Let’s set a G-Link-LXRS so that channels 1, 2 and 3 are active with a datalogging sampling rate of 32 samples per second and we launch continuous datalogging.  Our calculation would be:

• 3 channels x 32 samples per second = 96 data points per second
• 1,081,212 data points / 96 data points per second = 11,262 seconds
• 11,262 seconds / 60 seconds per minute = ~187 minutes to fill the memory

V-Link-LXRS, SG-Link-LXRS, SG-Link-OEM-LS and SG-Link-OEM-LXRS support strain gauges.  Node Commander software contains a strain gauge ‘wizard’ which allows the user to calibrate the output of the strain gauges using an on-board precision shunt resistor.  With this calibration, the nodes can now output engineering units, i.e. microstrain.

White papers are posted at: http://www.microstrain.com/white-papers.aspx